Anglicans do not locate Christ’s real presence in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, but in the hearts and affections of those who receive by faith the grace offered in the sacrament.

Augustine begins with "It's a long long road" (Neil Diamond, "He Ain’t Heavy"). Sixteenth century reformers and the classical Anglican position agree, but they are clear that Jesus Christ walked it for us.

Simul justus et peccator is incredibly good news that explains how a holy God can relate to sinners like us.

There are so many contradictions in it, how can an intelligent person possibly believe it?

I have been talking about the un-free will for thirty years and have never has a single person agree with me on my first attempt. People instinctively rise up against the idea. I repeat, I have not experienced a single instance, in thirty years…

Anglican theology and worship as seen in the Elizabethan Settlement is thoroughly biblical, beautiful, and generous in its balance between doctrinal essentials and liberty in nonessentials.

So what would happen if there was unity and clarity around our theological core? If our highest concern was the same as Thomas Cranmer and the English reformers, and Anglicans throughout our history, who invented and defined this expression of Christian worship and practice?

"The Lord our Righteousness" was the sermon preached March 20, 1757 at St. Mary's Church in Oxford. The preacher, William Romaine, so offended just about everyone that he was invited to never preach there again.

Sometimes the gospel is told simply, in a picture, poem, or song. We want to think that we find Christ - that we raise our hands with all heads bowed and eyes closed - that he is a result of our long search. But the gospel is about God, not us. In one of his prayers Thomas Cranmer reminds us that “forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee.” Any impulse in us towards God is a gift of God.

In the 1530s Cranmer came to fully embrace the evangelical movement sweeping England and the European continent, including the Protestant understanding of justification by faith alone apart from works. “The question that would occupy Cranmer for the remainder of his life,” according to theologian Ashley Null, “was how exactly the sacraments of the church fit into this new narrative.”

What would a one-stream Anglican Church look like - - the biblical, evangelical stream that’s front-and-center in the Articles of Religion, the Homilies, and in the Book of Common Prayer? We all know that three-streams sounds nice and agrees with our digestive sensitivities (Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal), but it’s a new idea - only from 1954 (Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God). We also know that there is not a hint or suggestion of more than one stream anywhere in the Formularies.

Seabury stood for strong ecclesiastical control (bishops), and for the diocese as the main unit of ministry rather than the local congregation. Like many who followed in the tracks of William Laud, Samuel Seabury was a flaming Arminian, happily opposed to the adoption of the historic Anglican formularies (the Articles of Religion). After he died, the newly formed Protestant Episcopal Church adopted the Articles as our theological standard in 1801.

It is a common mistake to not distinguish Tractarianism from the preceding generation of High Churchmen. Newman considered himself more in line with the “old divines” (earlier followers of William Laud) than with the high churchmen of the early 1800s. In fact, the Tractarians made fun of the High Church Party just as they did the evangelicals, because of their opposition to the Tracts for the Times.

The last few months I have searched various Anglican and Episcopal Church websites to find out what is being taught in adult SS classes and new member classes. It is actually shocking how shallow (and factually wrong!) are many of the things that are being taught! Early in my ministry I received a very generous postcard with the famous portrait of Thomas Cranmer from Bishop Fitz Allison thanking me for something I wrote. He concluded his card with: “Please don’t stop teaching the Articles of Religion to your folks!” Fitz was right, and for 40 years I have tried to teach Reformation Anglicanism. Here are my notes for an introductory class on Reformation Anglicanism. Please feel free to use them, change them, or dump them as you find helpful.

Gillis Harp, Professor of History at Grove City College, unmasks the three ways the Articles have been interpreted over time in his invitation to consider what Edwardian and Elizabethan reformers considered primary. The historic Anglican formularies do not constitute a wax nose to be shaped in any manner that suits us. Words matter!